Invisible Words, Exoplanets and our place in Geological history...

Dear Everyone,

Invisible Words has always been about oddities that I find interesting (and I hope that someone else does, too).
Battling with my worsening condition makes it a struggle, and the eternal angst of  'what's the point?' constantly threatens to undermine me.
Today , though, I discovered that someone has unearthed sixty years of extensive notes by Charles Hoy Fort, taken from his tireless research in the New York Library .
This puts it in perspective for me-
it wasn't so long ago that search engines were actually people surrounded by books.
Where there's life there's hope.
Rant over , thank you for listening.


Here is a little news from space...

Artist impression of planet orbiting Proxima Centauri

To be precise all eyes are now focused on the latest exoplanet , ' Proxima b ' , discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri , a mere 20 years distant , if you were travelling at 20 % the speed of light .
Which we can attain using the mooted Project Starshot technology.
The downside is don't pack your bags just yet, the payload on a Starshot is teeny.
Like one camera teeny.
Not even a selfie stick.
Besides, the fact that it's in the 'Goldilocks Zone' doesn't mean it's liveable - or worse yet, it might already be fully occupied .

 Jupiter by Juno                    pic NASA / EPA

Nearer to home, photos were recently posted from the closest approach of  the explorer Juno to the gas giant Jupiter .
Allegedly taken from a mere 2600 miles away.
Except, apparently they weren't.
Which makes me happy, because they looked a bit - meh
Apparently the good pics are yet to be processed, and these are just  ' teasers '.
 Online debate has already opened with interweb 'experts' arguing the pros and cons of Juno cam versus Hubble.
I won't get involved, but one camera I have been impressed with is the one used by Curiosity which has recently sent pictures of rock strata on Mars that makes me wonder whether there could be anything fossiliferous in there...

 Mars - Astronaut for scale !       pic NASA/ JPL / MSSS / Sean Doran

Alien molluscs - the mind boggles.
Meanwhile , in recent news from halfway up a volcano in Hawaii , the NASA  Mars simulation has just ended, with a brave team of six people being released back into the wilds of Hawaii after a year of incarceration (they were only allowed outside if wearing a space suit).
Despite the claustrophobia, no-one has gone on a rampage, so it bodes well...
Elon Musk has announced that a manned Dragon flight will be ready to leave soon , and so that next step of Earth expansion looms closer.
Which is just as well, as geologists are already debating when to add the human Holocene and Anthropocene markers into the strata of our world.
Seriously, we are officially part of geological history.


Speaking of aliens , which we weren't, but did you hear of the new radio signal causing waves (pun intended) amongst the SETI community ?
Emanating from a star some 95 light years distant, it could be hard proof of extraterrestials of a Kardashev I or II civilisation ...

Screenshot by Ella Morton

...or it could be a microlensed piece of galactic background noise; but, like the x-files poster - I want to believe.
On that note, I say farewell until next time  - stay positive !